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Agreed. But I've had a cop tell me that I had to remove my trailer hitch if I wasn't trailering anything. Supposedly illegal. By the way, it's still in there. It's saved me serious damage when being rear ended twice in the last ten years. No damage to the truck.

One reason I can think of is that a big hunk of metal sticking off the front of my truck may increase liability and in this day and age of lawsuits the insurance companies may start requiring it. Just a thought.
Who might enforce such a law might be the police. :salute:

Around us our larger plow trucks get pulled if we have plows on the night after a storm. Our bigger trucks run 9 or 10' plows and are too wide for most michigan roads. The cop has told me they will not pull anyone over the night of a storm but the following night if we are out doing clean up they always stop us and give a over length ticket. So we have to run just pick ups for clean up

MA has laws in place about when you can have the plow on your truck, how long after storms etc. I can't remember the laws, we found them awhile ago. Not enforced on smaller trucks, and seldom on larger trucks from what I have noticed.

many jurisdictions do have laws against having a plow on your vehicle a certain period of time after a storm, just as they have laws against driving with your hitch in place if not towing a trailer or driving down the road with unauthorized strobes flashing. these laws vary from town to town, state to state and it's best to check with your local jurisdictions. how often they are Enforced (that's with an E, not an I) is a whole 'nother story. but yes, these laws would be Enforced by the police if they are even aware they exist/chose to Enforce. The odds of them being Enforced is likely very slim.

for some ignorance is bliss, but it is always advised to be aware of the law. as we all know, ignorance to the law is not an excuse... "sorry officer, I didn't know the speed limit was only 35mph, so that absolves me of all responsibility" yeah, nice try.

Along the lines of plow design safety, a federal law was passed in 1993 or 1994 making it illegal for plow manufacturers to continue to produce the conventional style of plows in which the frame, pump, lights and lift arm stay on the vehicle once the plow is removed - hence the advent of the minute mount, unimount, etc. where all that stuff comes off with the plow. reason being is the excessive damage caused in collisions by the protruding lift arm. It was enough of a concern for a federal regulation to be passed preventing plow manufacturers from producing the conventional setup any further.

Interesting. I always thought the plow manufactures did away with the conventional style plows because they made the trucks look ugly as hell in the off-season. My Dad had one of the very first western uni mounts in our area back in the day. I remember thinking it was the coolest thing ever that the look of the truck wasn't ruined by having a plow on it.